Obama’s signing…statement?

February 18th, 2009, 2:23pm by Sam Wang

Today at 6:50pm ET, I’ll be on CNN’s Situation Room to talk about left-handed presidents and their brains. It might be re-broadcast tomorrow at 6:50am ET and/or 8:55am. I free-associated a bit – let’s hope nothing embarrassing emerges.

Update: here’s the video. Note that Obama curls his hand to avoid smearing ink. A more efficient but even odder-looking approach, taken by one of my left-handed colleagues, is to hold the paper sideways when writing.

In addition to left-handed presidents (Obama, Clinton, perhaps Reagan), it was mentioned that Osama bin Laden is also left-handed. Left-handers are more variable than the general population in a number of traits. They are over-represented among the verbally gifted and are more likely to solve problems in unusual ways. But they are also more likely to be criminals. Bin Laden combines all three categories.